Vogenauer, Stefan --- "Statutory Interpretation" [2006] ELECD 212; in Smits, M. Jan (ed), "Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law

Editor(s): Smits, M. Jan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420130

Section: Chapter 61

Section Title: Statutory Interpretation

Author(s): Vogenauer, Stefan

Number of pages: 12

Extract:

61 Statutory interpretation*
Stefan Vogenauer


1 Introduction
Statutory interpretation, in a broad sense, involves determining the meaning
of a statute. In practice, this is only rarely done for its own sake. People
usually engage in this exercise in order to establish whether a particular
statute applies to a given case. Thus statutory interpretation in a narrow
sense is concerned with determining whether a given set of facts falls within
the scope of a particular statutory provision and therefore triggers the legal
consequences spelt out in the provision.
The word `interpretation' is derived from the Latin interpretari and inter-
pretatio which has connotations of `exposition', `explanation', `meaning'
and `understanding'. In medieval and early modern legal Latin it was often
used synonymously with explicatio, expositio or declaratio. The term also
found its way into the Romance languages (interprétation, interpretazione,
interpretación), into English via the medieval `law French' and, in the 16th
century, into German (Interpretation). The older German expression
Auslegung (Dutch: uitleg) is still used synonymously. So is, in English, the
term `construction' which indicates that interpretation is a `constructive'
exercise which does not only explain a word but actively `sets up' something
(Vogenauer, 2003, pp. 564­5).
Statutes are interpreted in all legal systems which employ statutes as a
source of law, and thus in all modern systems. In fact, statutory interpre-
tation is even a particularly important feature of most of these systems
because it is relevant to all cases in which a statute is or at least ...